


Job Set Up

by genericfanatic



Series: Set Up Stories [3]
Category: the adventure zone
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 09:17:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20871827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genericfanatic/pseuds/genericfanatic
Summary: Taako is debating his next career move, and gets an idea while out with his friends





	Job Set Up

“Hey folks, it’s cha’boy Taako, back in black to...I’m not even wearing black, I don’t know why I said that. Shit, fuck. Ok, let’s try this again.”

“‘Sup everybody! Welcome to the launch of my new channel, Taako Time! Now I know some of y’all are just here for the ‘scoop’ after what happened with my last channel. Well you can just close the video now and mind your own fucking business because….ugh, no, I can’t swear at them in my first minute…”

“What’s up sluts! No, Taako, what did I just say? Ugh. Ok, one more time.”

“Hey there. I’m Taako. A lot of you might know me from an incident that happened a few years ago, but none of you have gotten to hear my side of the story. Well, I can’t say everything ‘cause of some legal stuff, but, I will say that it wasn’t my fault. It was...God, what am I doing?”

“Taako?”

Taako reached forward and turned off his video camera, sighing as he got up to go to the living room. “Kravitz?” Taako said, “what are you doing here?”

“It’s Thursday,” Kravitz said, “date night?”

Taako took out his phone, seeing that it was 6:17. There were also a lot of missed texts and calls from Kravitz, as he was supposed to meet him at 6. “Oh, God, sorry. I was trying to film that video and...ugh, lost track of time.”

“Oh!” Kravitz said, brightening, “you made it? Can I see?”

“Uh,” Taako said, shifting back and forth. “Not much to see, I spent most of the day cleaning to get the mis-en-scene, ya know? But uh.” He shrugged, “yeah, I deleted all of it.”

Kravitz held out his arms, and Taako gratefully fell into them, groaning. “It’s fine hun,” Kravitz said, “you don’t have a time limit. Take your time to do what you need.”

Taako groaned louder, and Kravitz rubbed up and down his back. He got to his neck and Taako yelped. “Blood circulation!” Taako said, “get some!”

“Sorry!” Kravitz said, pulling away, but Taako just grabbed his hand, rubbing them to give it some friction and warmth. They ended up just holding hands in the middle of the living room. “Hey,” Kravitz said, “still up for date night, or you want to order in?”

“Pad Thai?” Taako asked, hopefully.

“Sure,” Kravitz said, “come on.”

He led Taako back into his own room, taking off his tie and belt for prime snuggling. Taako went all the way to take off his pants, bouncing on the bed for Kravitz to get comfortable. Taako was taller, but was in Magnus’ words, a beanpole. Kravitz has some nice pecs to use as pillows.

Once Kravitz was in his proper position, Taako took extra time to nuzzle into him, mostly to make him giggle and lose attention as he was trying to order their pad Thai on grub hub. He succeeded in the giggling, but Kravitz managed to get the order out anyway. “I’m really proud of you, you know,” he said.

Taako lifted his head, hair already mussed up. “For what?”

“Following your dreams,” Kravitz said, “getting back into your videos and stuff.”

Taako swallowed uncomfortable, “I haven’t done it yet.”

“Anything is a start,” Kravitz said, kissing the top of his head and making him wiggle a bit in happiness. “You’re gonna do great at whatever you want. And if this is what you want, then it’s gonna be great.”

Taako sighed. “I dunno,” he said, “like, do I think I’ll do a great job? Obviously.” Kravitz snorted. “But I just...I feel like no matter what I do, Sazed’s just gonna be hanging over me.”

Kravitz tensed around him. He didn’t even know Taako during that whole incident, but still, it felt like he almost hated Sazed more than Taako. Still, he didn’t say anything about it, just held Taako closer, “that asshole can’t hold the one and only Taako back.”

“I dunno, he’s been doing a pretty good job of it for the past few years,” Taako said. “Didn’t even have to do anything just. Everyone else is gonna freak out.”

Kravitz squeezed him again. “If you want to do this, you’ll find a way,” he said, “if you don’t, you can do something else. There’s a lot of other jobs that are less public.”

Taako screwed up his face, “but that’s the thing! I want the publicity and attention. There was a time I thought I’d be famous, like, really famous. I loved the glitz and the twitter followers and the people who loved me.” He lifted his head to rest his chin on Taako, “does that make me totally shallow?”

“I don’t think so,” Kravitz said, “everyone wants to be loved.”

“You don’t tend to care what people think,” Taako said, “and neither does Lup or Barry...but it’s like I can’t stop.”

Kravitz took a deep breath, “everyone’s different,” he said, “just take it one step at a time.”

Taako leaned back on him. “I guess.”

Kravitz gave him another squeeze, “you want to watch cutthroat kitchen until the food gets here?”

“Yes!” Taako said, brightening. He was always willing to put the future off until later.

The next night was boys night, where Taako, Merle (his upstairs neighbor) and Magnus (his downstairs neighbor) got together for a night on the town. They didn’t put much effort into planning it, but usually found a disaster somewhere along the way anyhow.

Tonight they’d infiltrated a biker gang and gotten into a bit of a kerfuffle (Merle’s word for a fistfight) and ended up running and taking some shelter behind a dumpster. So pretty tame.

“So, hows the wife?” Merle asked Magnus like they weren’t all crouched over mystery sticky liquid. 

Magnus brightened, “Julia’s doin good. Her dad’s officially in retirement, so she’s taken over. I help out where I can, but I’m better at using the tools and stuff than the business things. Most of my times been going to the dog training stuff.”

“Keepin busy,” Taako said, “Respect. So why do you look like you’re shampooing with bird shit?”

“Ew,” Magnus said, scrunching up his face. “No, I’m happy! I just. I love the dogs so much, but I can’t exactly talk to them. And Julia’s so busy at work dealing with customers all day that she doesn’t want to talk at the end of the day.” He smiled, “Glad to spend some time with you guys, get to talk to people for a change.”

“I hear ya,” Taako said, “Police work’s got Lup and Kravitz busy like all the time, and they come home so exhausted it’s hard getting a good conversation out of them.”

“Forget conversations,” Merle said, “I have conversations, but they’re all about gross shit like puss and poop and long lasting erections.”

Taako and Magnus looked at him. “Merle,” Magnus said, “You’re a nurse. That’s like, your whole thing.”

“What, you guys are allowed to complain about your job and I’m not?” Merle grumped. “And I’m at a clinic, not a hospital, so Im not really even doing triage or life saving things or anything. I only took it for the better hours so Hecuba would actually let me see my kids. And even that’s tenuous.”

Taako snorted, because that’s how he dealt with things that were uncomfortable. “Maybe that’s for the better, pan knows your kids would do well not to listen to you.”

“Hey!” Merle protested, as Magnus barked out a laugh. They heard voices in the distance, and instantly stilled. They’d gotten too lax, and the hammerheads (stupid name for a biker gang) had caught up to them.

They snuck their way down the alley, looking for their next hiding spot. Magnus motioned to turn around and face them, but Taako shot that down. His boyfriend was a cop, he couldn’t go starting fights. Also he was wearing his nice boots, didn’t need those getting scuffed or worse.

“I’ll have you know,” Merle continued, as though the conversation hadn’t ceased, “I am filled with incredible wisdom, and ANYONE would do well to listen to me!”

“Says the guy clutching onto a tree!” Magnus shout-whispered back.

They were all in the tree, Taako nearest the top, Magnus balancing on the lower, sturdier branches, and Merle wrapped around the trunk. “Securely in the tree,” Merle corrected, “and far less at risk of falling than you bozos, you’ll find. You should have listened to me.”

Taako scoffed, adjusting his grip. “Please. I’m the one of us who’s actually guided youths professionally.”

“You’re a babysitter, Taako,” Merle said.

“Professionally!” Taako said, “we all know I’m the smartest one here. People should be listening to me.”

“Yeah right.” Magnus said, “You guys wish you had my rustic hospitality. I’m a man of the people. If people are listening to anyone, it should be me.”

“Maybe if they were a dog,” Taako chided him.

“Or a hunk of wood,” Merle added.

“You guys are just mean!” Magnus said, “I’d give the best advice, and I’d—“

He cut himself off with a yelp as the branch he was on broke, and he went tumbling to the ground.

“Ha!” Merle yelled, “I told you, I told—“ he stopped himself as there was an ominous snapping from above. He looked up just in time to see Taako tumbling down, and bringing him with him.

“Ok,” Taako said from the top of the pile, maybe we’re all dumbasses.”

“I’d say so.” They all looked up to find the hammerheads staring down at them. 

Taako groaned, “I’m tired of running,” he said, “Magnus, get ‘em.”

Kravitz could not emphasize how tired he was when he got a call at 3 am. Furthermore, he couldn’t emphasize how DONE he was when he arrived at the holding station, to see his boyfriend jump up and run to the bars. “Babe! We’re gonna start an advice podcast!”

Kravitz glared at him. “What?” He asked, because that was all he was capable of processing. 

“It’s perfect!” Taako continued with way too much energy, “I’ll use a pseudonym and change my voice, so no one will know it’s me from YouTube. I’ll be like daft punk, but for advice instead of music.”

Kravitz blinked. “You and your friends got in a fight over podcasting?”

“Oh, uh,” Taako said, “no, that was unrelated. But they were being real dicks, babe, I did everything I could to stop that fight.”

Kravitz took a deep breath, “did you really? Or was part of it your fault?”

Taako shrunk back a bit, guilt clear on his face. “I Uh...ok, that one...that one’s on me.” 

Kravitz couldn’t deal right now. “I’ll come back to pick you up in the morning.”

“What?!” Taako cried. “But I was honest! I said the right thing!”

Kravitz considered. “First thing in the morning.”

He left Taako behind to flail in indignation as he went to sign the papers to let him and his friends out.

**Author's Note:**

> Lup didn’t even pick up


End file.
